Observations, articles, opinions etc. in Dutch and English. The author, Bert de Bruin (Yonathan Dror Bar-On), is a Dutch-Jewish historian, who has specialized in modern Jewish history and in the history of the Middle East, and who in 1995 emigrated from the Netherlands to Israel. He wrote one book (2008), and edited another (2011), both in Dutch. For feedback please post a comment, or send this blog's author an email: (hisdutchname)atyahoodotcom

Thursday, October 06, 2005

In today's Ha'Aretz I read two very articles that I saved for 'posterity' on my articles' backup blog : the newspaper's editorial and an article by Aluf Benn. Both pieces deal with what Sharon does and does not say, might and might not do in his post-Gaza glory days. It will be interesting to read the two articles next year around Rosh HaShanah, just as interesting as it is to read again some of the articles that were published more than two years ago, when Mr Sharon only started to mention words like occupation, and to talk about a disengagement from Gaza. In Dutch I would say about the man that he certainly did not choke on his first lie, but on the other hand, when it comes to Gaza few people really believed he would pull his plan off, and pull it off he did. Aluf Benn expresses some good ideas about possible Israeli moves, initiatives or reactions as far as Syria and the Golan are concerned. Benn points out something that often is missing from other analyses: while his predecessors liked to talk about the Golan in order to be able to talk less about/with the Palestinians, Sharon prefers to talk and deal with the Palestinians, rather than touching the issue of the Golan.